[Skrybe]

Merry Christmas, everyone! We've got something special for you today: a prototype of Zelda no Densetsu, better known to most of us as The Legend of Zelda.



This is an early build of the original FDS version of Zelda, complete with different room layouts, sprite changes, new music, and odd glitches. As a lot of you guys know, it's very unusual for first party prototypes like this to make their way out to the public, so this is quite a find.

This build shows how the initial design of Zelda was notably less difficult than what we ended up playing on our NESes (and Famicoms). Practically all of the gameplay changes from this build to the final were made to make the game more challenging:



The prototype, pictured on the left, tends to use an easier selection of enemies than the final, seen on the right. Frequently the enemies are fewer in number in the prototype as well. Money is considerably easier to come by, too, as you can see from Link's maxed out rupies.

Some early designs for the monsters can be seen in this prototype also. For example, notice how the Pols Voice didn't initially have whiskers:



All of the known changes in this prototype, including altered gameplay mechanics and new game over music, have been documented in extreme detail and will be posted over at The Cutting Room Floor.

You can pick up the .fds file right here:

.fds image
NSF
Disk scans: Side A Side B

Thanks to Chris Covell for his help in obtaining the disk, and for ripping the NSF, Rob Budrick for copying the game, and GoldS for documenting all of the differences.

Enjoy!

[MathUser2929]

I look forward to seeing the differences in this ROM.

[Vlcice]

Wow! Very, very nice. This makes a fantastic Christmas present.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in releasing this.

[Xkeeper]

Page is up now. Took a bit longer than expected, but it's there.

[Mia D]

This is awesome. This is SO. AWESOME.

[celebi23]

AWESOME!! Thank you for sharing this

[sebmal]

hoooooooolyyyyyyyyyyyy shit

[Erilily]

Ooh ooh best christmas ever.

I wonder which build has the "Sword or Boomerang" choice that's in the American manual.

[Xkeeper]

[skyrunner14]

Man, this is impressive. My eyes bugged outta my head when I saw this, like

I downloaded this, but I can't find a Disk System BIOS anywhere... anyone know where I could find it at?

[Skrybe]

Right here.

[nensondubois]

Best damn Christmas! I made some youtube videos showcasing the prototype, if anyone's interested. The last two parts are yet to be uploaded.

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJJy-rvZJs

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFfk5onbxjw

[DarkTetsuya]

So it seems like they composed the 'Death Mountain' music first then the 'regular dungeon' music... felt really weird walking around the first dungeon to that music.

and I *thought* I was getting more money from enemies than I usually do...

very awesome present, I have to say.

[Xkeeper]

I wonder why some people are so skeptical. "FDS images can be faked easily!" Because obviously this is a fake. (Also, "Where's the video of someone playing it on a real FDS?" Because obviously if you can dump disk images, you can't write them.)

-_-

[nensondubois]

Since ccovell is a known hacker, but highly respectable in the NES community, I doubt he'll let something as groundbreaking as a Zelda Prototype be deemed a fake with it's millions of fans and it would be moot to do so. I believe this is legitimate.

Here's Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdP2Wfh1n_w

[Tongueman]

So who's saying it's fake, then?

[Xkeeper]

[nensondubois]

I'll just leave this music modifier code here and slowly walk away. 0E00:??, (also a sound effect modifiers) 0E01:??, 0E02:??, 0E03:??, 0E04:??, and 0E05:??

[Erilily]

[skyrunner14]